Nair Argan Oil Salon Divine Body Wax* - Pain Free Waxing?

You should know by now that I'm not the type of blogger that shies away from less glamorous side of beauty. Over the years I've covered all sorts of topics from dental health, to products that you can use when you have aches and pains, and cold cures, one of the less attractive topics that I keep coming back to though, is hair removal.

I know I keep saying it but body hair is really one of those taboo subjects and to be honest I don't know why - body hair is completely normal, and we all have it, some of us have more of it, and some of us have less of it, and that's just the way it is. When it comes to hair removal I firmly believe that it should be down to personal choice - if you don't like it get shot of it, if you're happy to have body hair then that's fine as well, it's up to you and nobody should judge you for what you choose to do with your own body!

I've said it so many times before but I am pretty lazy when it comes to hair removal, it's a chore, and an energy sapper that I can quite frankly do without. Whilst getting busy with a razor is probably the easiest and laziest option, I've got to be honest and say that I'd rather spend a little bit longer on a method that's going to give me a longer term result. Shaving my legs every day or every other day just doesn't make sense to me, I'd rather take a little bit of time and wax or epilate them and have hair free legs for about a month instead.

I was 17 when I first waxed my legs, and to be honest I have no idea why I kept going back for more, it was torture! I just didn't understand why people could put themselves through that - but as the years have gone by, my leg hairs are patchier and finer, and I can honestly say that the sensations is barely more than a little bit of stinging now. I'm sure both mine and my mam's waxing technique has come on a long way since then but I definitely think that there has been a big improvement in home waxing products.

Pain is probably one of the biggest reasons why some people shy away from waxing, and whilst it can smart a little, a lot of products are now promising a relatively painless waxing experience. I've got to say I'm pretty sceptical about that whole claim but I was recently sent one such product to try out and see for myself.

When you think of home hair removal brands, I can pretty much guarantee that one of the first brands that you would think of would be Nair. After many years of focusing purely on hair removal creams, they've successfully moved into the home waxing market with a wide range of strip waxes. Recently though they branched into the scary world of hot wax and released the Nair Argan Oil Salon Divine Body Wax.

Crammed full of nourishing and moisturising Argan Oil and Vitamin E, and fragrant Orange Blossom, this formulation has been dermatologically tested and especially created to be as pain free as possible, in fact they even use the tag line "Bye Bye Pain", and by and large they seem to be able to back that claim up with 93% of participants in a consumer test reporting a relatively painless hair removal experience.

So what did I think, well lets start at the beginning and talk about what you actually get in the box. Obviously the most important thing is the instruction leaflet, and if you're messing around with something that's very hot then you need to be safe, so you need to read the leaflet thoroughly. The box also contains a wooden spatula, some aftercare wipes, and a large plastic pot which contains solid creamy white, slightly pearlescent wax.

Surely there is something missing I hear you cry? Well no, not in this case, the majority of home, hot waxing kits come with either paper or cloth strips to remove the wax, but this one is a little bit different, it's basically a peel off formulation which may be one of the reasons for the relatively pain free claims? It's definitely more professional and a lot of salons now use similar products but how suitable is it for home use?

Like most home hot waxes, you need to use a microwave to heat up the wax, but in this case there is no other option, no microwave no can use! The instructions give full timings depending on the power of your microwave but basically you want a smooth, easy to stir consistency with no lumps. Once you've reached the ideal consistency I found that the wax was way, way too hot to even patch test so I left it cool for a little while before testing the temperature on the inside of my wrist.

Then you can probably guess what happens next, apply an even layer with the spatula to clean, dry legs, in the direction of the hair growth. It takes a little bit of practise to the strip thickness even and to work out how thick it actually needs to be but once you get into the swing of it isn't that difficult to do. Then you leave your strip to set for a few seconds, before pulling it off against the direction of the growth, then repeat, repeat and repeat till you are done.

Although I've tried a lot of different waxing products over the years, I've never tried using a strip free wax before, and after giving it a go and I can see both positives and negatives. The wax in this case doesn't feel particularly like wax, in fact it almost feels slightly rubbery or plasticy, which I guess is what makes so easy to peel off. It also smelled way nicer then some of the waxes I've used you could really smell the orange blossom, and almost a white flower like aroma, and believe it or not it wasn't that painful. Admittedly I'm a waxing aficionado and my legs are probably used to be assaulted now but all I felt was a bit of warmth and a bit of stinging. My legs did look red and a bit like a plucked chicken but aftercare wipes, calmed them down, and removed the excess blobs of wax. I didn't find the wax that drying thanks to the high concentration of moisturising and nourishing ingredients but the wipes, which had a pleasant fresh scent and a slightly oily feel definitely added an extra hit of moisture.

Before 

After

So it worked, it removed pretty much all of my leg hair without too much pain but I still don't feel as though I can recommend this product, why? Well this was probably the messiest hot wax product that I've ever used. Hot wax can be messy but this went above and beyond as you can see from the finished state of the pot. It was impossible not to get dribbles down the side of the tub, on other parts of your legs and in my case all over my sheets. It was easy enough to get off the tray, other hard surfaces and my legs but the wax that went on my sheets was another story entirely, you could pick the hard bits of when they cooled but even after washing you could still see and feel the odd sticky patch. If you have any leftover wax it can be reheated but my poor spatula was just a massive blob of rock solid wax and ended up in the bin :(

I've read a few reviews of this product since I tried it and quite a few them have basically said that this product just doesn't remove hair that well, that wasn't my experience though. I had no problems with it's hair removal ability, it smelled nice, and it removed all of my hair in a relatively pain free way, so in theory it did exactly what it promised but I just couldn't deal with the mess! If you're one of those people that loved peeling glue off your hands then you might enjoy this but in future I think I'll stick to Nair's cold wax strips. To find out more about Nair's hair removal solutions then please check out their official website. Nair Salon Divine Body Wax retails at around £12.59 and is available from various retailers including Boots. Are you a hot wax fan or are the cold strips more your thing? or do you just leave it to the professionals? Let me know in the comments x 

*Press Sample